Religion and its attempt to affect society

I have always been thrown into different religious environments do to my parents living style. My parents have always felt the need to be on a spiritual journey. I started off Christian when I was born and very slowly made my way through the crazy religions to the point where I am now Jewish. When we were going over religion in the sociology class I really began to see things that I remember seeing in each religion. I noticed that each religion wants to try and affect society around it. Whether that be Christian or Messianic, or Judaism.

I was born a Baptist. I was baptized at the local church near my house and all my morals began to develop based on that what the Baptists believe. It didn’t seem like a cult to me, since it is more of norm now than it used to be. I could see how each they wanted either money or to just get as many people as they can into their church. The idea behind it was pretty simple the more people you get to tithe the more money the church takes in. That is pretty apparent in some churches. The mega million dollar media churches you see on television are only after money and it is very interesting to see. My parents were soon not happy with the church so we moved on to something even crazier.

The messianic movement is rather insane. It is a different type of culture on its own. It pulls all the crazy people in my opinion to the religion. They are truly after the people that really want to be Jewish but have been indoctrinated to believe they will go to hell if they don’t believe in Jesus. It goes back to the idea that in society the church makes people fear the idea of changing religions. Who would want to go to hell, so it’s better to just accept Jesus in their hearts. The Messianic religion is based on the idea that you can capitalize on this way of thinking. They will grow and it is very apparent that all they really want it money. That doesn’t mean everyone in the religion is crazy and wants just the money. It’s just the vast majority are crazy, and I think it’s due to the sociological effect of the church on the people that attend. They are afraid that if they stop believing in Jesus they will be shunned by their friends and neighbors. Thankfully my parents didn’t stay in this religion long, and we moved onto a Judaism.

I am currently a Jewish person. I can’t say I don’t see the religions faults, but I think there are faults in any organized religion. I was an orthodox Jew for many years, and you can really see the cult like ideology of the community you live in. You are almost shunned for thinking any different than the other people in the community.  Everyone looks at you when you are wearing something different. The laws are very strict, but thankfully no Kool-Aid. I’d say the difference is the Jewish people do not look to try and convert everyone around them. They are different in that way, they require that you ask and be turned away three times before you can even convert. They are not in it for the money as much as the media like churches.

In the end based on my own life stories in religion I can see a lot of what we learned in religion. I can see the idea that most religions to this day have some remnants of a cult. That most churches try to convert everyone around them. That every church or religious organization I have been apart have has been like its own society. You do things by their book and the second you decide to no longer, they cut all ties with you. That to me is how religion attempts to affect society. You can choose to ignore religion all together but they will still try to convince you anywhere they can. Whether it be pastors sitting out on Annie Glidden road giving out New Testament bibles, or Jehovah’s witnesses knocking on your door. Religion will always be a part of society.

http://theunboundedspirit.com/the-negative-effects-of-religion-on-society/

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/1996/01/bg1064nbsp-why-religion-matters